U.S. patent number 5,568,383 [Application Number 08/344,295] was granted by the patent office on 1996-10-22 for natural language translation system and document transmission network with translation loss information and restrictions.
This patent grant is currently assigned to International Business Machines Corporation. Invention is credited to William J. Johnson, Michael D. Smith, Marvin L. Williams.
United States Patent |
5,568,383 |
Johnson , et al. |
October 22, 1996 |
Natural language translation system and document transmission
network with translation loss information and restrictions
Abstract
A network and methodology provides transmission of documents
with accompanying translation loss information. The originator of a
document translates the document from a native language into a
second language capable of reception by a recipient. Loss
information is generated and presented to the originator who inputs
loss criteria information restricting and/or enforcing specified
translations of the document by the recipient. The loss criteria
information may be attached to the original document in the native
language of the originator and transmitted to the recipient. The
document is translated into the second language recognizable by the
user based on the loss criteria information attached to the
document.
Inventors: |
Johnson; William J. (Flower
Mound, TX), Smith; Michael D. (Euless, TX), Williams;
Marvin L. (Lewisville, TX) |
Assignee: |
International Business Machines
Corporation (Armonk, NY)
|
Family
ID: |
25529746 |
Appl.
No.: |
08/344,295 |
Filed: |
November 23, 1994 |
Related U.S. Patent Documents
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Application
Number |
Filing Date |
Patent Number |
Issue Date |
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983018 |
Nov 30, 1992 |
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Current U.S.
Class: |
704/2;
704/270.1 |
Current CPC
Class: |
G06F
40/58 (20200101); G06Q 10/107 (20130101) |
Current International
Class: |
G06Q
10/00 (20060101); G06F 17/28 (20060101); G06F
017/28 () |
Field of
Search: |
;364/419.02,419.03,419.04,419.05,419.06,419.07 |
References Cited
[Referenced By]
U.S. Patent Documents
Other References
Patent Abstracts of Japan, vol. 13, No. 322, Apr. 3, 1989, Abstract
No. 01-88776, Hasebe et al..
|
Primary Examiner: Hayes; Gail O.
Assistant Examiner: Yount; Steven R.
Attorney, Agent or Firm: Duffield; Edward H.
Parent Case Text
The application is a continuation of application Ser. No.
07/983,018, filed Nov. 30, 1992, now abandoned.
Claims
What I claim is:
1. A computer implemented method of transmitting a document in a
data processing system having a plurality of workstations from an
originator to a recipient, comprising:
creating said document in a first workstation of said originator in
a first language;
translating said document from said first language into a second
language at said first workstation and generating information loss
for said document accessible by said originator;
specifying loss criteria restricting a particular one of a
plurality of translations by said originator based on said
information loss and combining said loss criteria with said
document in said first language; and
transmitting said document in said first language with said loss
criteria to said recipient at a second workstation in said data
processing system for translation into said second language
selected by said recipient based on said loss criteria when said
second language is not the particular one of said plurality of
translations restricted by said originator.
2. The method of claim 1 wherein said step of translating said
document from said first language into a second language at said
first workstation includes creating word loss information tables in
said first workstation defining attributes of said second
language.
3. The method of claim 1 wherein said specifying step includes the
steps comprising,
creating an object for storing said loss criteria at said first
workstation; and
entering said loss criteria in said object in a general criteria
format at said first workstation.
4. The method of claim 3 wherein said loss criteria is in a
detailed criteria format.
5. A computer implemented method of transmitting a document in a
data processing system according to claim 1 wherein said
transmitting step includes the steps of:
receiving said document in said first language by said recipient in
said second workstation;
examining said loss criteria at said second workstation and
prohibiting the translation of said document into said second
language selected by said recipient based on said loss criteria;
and
displaying the permissible translations of said document based on
the information loss for said document to said recipient at said
second workstation.
6. A computer implemented method of transmitting a document in a
data processing system according to claim 5 wherein said examining
step includes the step of transmitting the translation of said
document to said originator.
7. A network including a plurality of workstations and
interconnected data processing means for transmitting a document
from an originator to a recipient, comprising:
means for creating said document in a first workstation of said
originator in a first language;
means for translating said document from said first language into a
second language at said first workstation and generating
information loss for said document accessible by said
originator;
means for specifying loss criteria restricting a particular one of
a plurality of translations by said originator based on said
information loss and combining said loss criteria with said
document in said first language; and
means for transmitting said document in said first language and
said loss criteria to said recipient at a second workstation in
said data processing system for translation into said second
language selected by said recipient based on said loss criteria
when said second language is not the particular one of said
plurality of translations restricted by said originator.
8. A network as recited in claim 7, wherein said means for
translating said document from said first language into a second
language at said first workstation includes means for creating word
loss information tables in said first workstation defining
attributes of said second language.
9. The network as recited in claim 7, wherein said means for
specifying includes,
means for creating an object for storing said loss criteria at said
first workstation; and
means for entering said loss criteria in said object in a general
criteria format at said first workstation.
10. The network of claim 9 wherein said loss criteria is in a
detailed criteria format.
11. The network of claim 10 wherein said means for transmitting
includes,
means for receiving said document in said first language by said
recipient into said second workstation;
means for examining said loss criteria at said second workstation
and prohibiting the translation of said document into said second
language selected by said recipient based on said loss criteria;
and
means for displaying a permissible translation of said document
based on the information loss for said document to said recipient
at said second workstation.
12. A computer implemented method of transmitting a document in a
data processing system according to claim 1 wherein said
transmitting step includes the step of:
transmitting said document in said first language with said loss
criteria by said recipient at said second workstation in said data
processing system to a second recipient for translation into a
third language selected by said second recipient based on said loss
criteria when said third language is not the particular one of said
plurality of translations restricted by said originator.
13. The network of claim 7 wherein said means for transmitting a
document in a data processing system includes,
means for transmitting said document in said first language with
said loss criteria by said recipient at said second workstation in
said data processing system to a second recipient for translation
into a third language selected by said second recipient based on
said loss criteria when said third language is not the particular
one of said plurality of translations restricted by said
originator.
Description
TECHNICAL FIELD OF THE INVENTION
This invention relates to a method and apparatus for transmitting
messages, and more particularly, to the detection and reporting of
translation losses to users within a network when audio messages
are translated.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
The proliferation of electronic office systems creates a need for
exchanging and storing information. One reason for this
proliferation is the popularity of Electronic mail (E-mail)
networks. Electronic mail networks permit a network of
communicating text and word processors to transmit documents (e.g.
text, graphic, facsimile, voice, etc.) from one end-user to
another. The current state of the art permits a sender to transmit
an audio message to a recipient or embed an audio message or music
into documents. This capability allows a network user to
personalize documents and communicate using the power of voice or
music in sound annotated messages, electronic mail or multimedia
presentations. Sound files may be depicted in documents as icons
resembling microphones. A user may playback messages using sound
enabling hardware or with microphones and speaker devices plugged
into a workstation.
Electronic mail networks now permit inter-vendor networking of
voice messages between different mail systems thereby increasing
the reach of network users. Voice messages may be delivered to a
recipient, marked with a time and date stamped. The voice messages
may then be delivered immediately, overnight or scheduled for
delivery up to one year in advance. Electronic mail networks
supporting voice processing may support multiple applications such
as voice mail, voice response, fax and electronic mail. As used in
this specifications, voice processing is an underlying technology
which consists of voice mail, auto attendant, interactive voice
response, text-to-speech, audient and speech recognition.
Electronic mail networks enable wide spread user communications
encompassing many nationalities. Recipients of voice messages may
receive audio messages in a language that is not native to the
recipient. While prior art mechanisms have addressed converting a
text message to a recipient's native language or one computer
machine code to another (e.g., Revisable File Text (RFT) to ASCII),
they have not addressed transmission of audio messages and the word
translation losses incurred when the audio messages are translated.
Word translation losses occur for many reasons but most losses
occur due to the dialect of a language. Generally, automatic
language translation systems have an accuracy of between 60-80
percent for translating scientific and technical materials.
However, translating accuracy suffers substantially when handling
conversational sentences with their often obscure grammatical
structure. Conversion/Translation of an audio message from an
originator's language may produce words that are of a dubious
nature in a recipient's native language. Even when words are the
closest match that a language translation mechanism can perform,
they may still be unacceptable. Another problem surfaces when the
originator of an audio message needs to retain a verification copy
of the transmitted document. While the originator may keep a copy
of the original document, a translated version of the transmitted
document is not available making it impossible to verify what the
recipient has viewed. Prior art systems have not provided
mechanisms that allow originators of audio messages to specify the
conditions for which language translation should occur. A
translation mechanism should allow a user transmitting a message to
edit the original message before transmitting it if words are used
which have no direct translation or which are unacceptable in the
recipient's language. Also, the recipient of an audio translation
may need to determine the acceptability of the translation. A
mechanism is needed that notifies the recipient of an audio message
that a language translation has occurred with information loss.
Consequently, a technique is needed that detects information loss
when a message/document is translated and conveys this loss to the
originator of the message as well as the recipient.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
This invention relates to a method and apparatus for detecting the
loss of information resulting from translating a message. An
apparatus is provided to detect the loss of information caused by
translation by accessing information word loss tables. Information
word loss is then transmitted to the originator of the message with
provisions for specifying criteria under which future language
translations can occur. A language conversion criteria object is
created and attached to the audio message before transmitting the
audio message to the recipient. The language conversion criteria
object permits the originator of the message to specify general
criteria and detailed criteria under which future translations can
occur. The originator of a message is thereby allowed to define
characteristics and convey information word loss on a word by word
basis.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS
FIG. 1 is a word loss table showing an English to Russian
translation.
FIG. 2 shows an icon for a Graphical User Interface (GUI) to call
the ward loss table depicted in FIG. 1.
FIG. 3 shows an interactive display panel for a Graphical User
Interface allowing selection of one of a plurality of permissible
languages into which a message can be translated.
FIG. 4 shows a flow diagram of actions taken when a message is
constructed and translated at an Originator's workstation.
FIG. 5 shows a flow diagram of actions taken when a recipient
receives a transmitted message that needs translation at a
workstation.
FIGS. 6 and 7 represent the processing done by this invention to
develop and present criteria for translating a message.
FIG. 8 is a flow diagram of processing undertaken when the
originator of a message has requested return notification.
FIG. 9 is a block diagram of a data processing system where this
invention may be practiced.
DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION
With reference now to the figures, and in particular FIG. 1, there
is depicted a word loss table showing a Russian to English
translation. The word loss table contains four columns representing
Russian 22 words appearing in an audio message, the equivalent
English 20 words, the translation of the Russian words to English
24 words, and the information losses 26 resulting from the
translation. The table shows that three of the Russian words are
successfully translated into English without any information loss.
However, the Russian word "XOPOWNN", which has the English
equivalent "Good", is translated to "Fine". The information loss 26
column appropriately shows that a translation loss has taken place.
Using this technique, information loss may be presented to a user
to convey losses resulting from the translation process. In the
same way, detailed tables can be accessed to determine how the
tense, gender, etc of any language is altered doing the translation
process. Of course, one skilled in the art would recognize that
alternative embodiments within the scope of this invention could
implement various types of information losses similar to those in
information loss 26 column such as complete loss, no loss, some
loss, etc.
Turning now to FIG. 2, an icon 32 is shown that may be provided
within a Graphical User's Interface (GUI) for accessing information
loss tables such as the one in FIG. 1. The icon 32 contains a flag
30 thereon indicating to a user the availability of language
translation. Selecting the icon with a pointing device (e.g.,
mouse, light-pen, etc.) or keyboard permits the user to access loss
tables or gain access to procedures for specifying criteria for
translating messages. FIG. 3 shows how a plurality of permissible
language translations are made available to a user through a GUI
icon 40. The GUI icon 40 permits user selection of one or more
languages for translation. Using a pointing device or keyboard, a
user selects one or more languages from the available language
translations in column 48. Comprehension is enhanced by providing
an image of a flag corresponding to the available translations as
shown in column 50. Additional language translations not currently
viewable, may be accessed by manipulating the scroll bars 42, 44
and the indicator 46 in conjunction with a pointing device in a
manner well known to those skilled in the art.
Turning now to FIG. 4, a flow diagram is shown describing the
operation of the invention when the originator of a note wishes to
translate/transform it into another language. The originator of the
note specifies a language into which the note will be transformed
at block 102. A check is made at block 104 to determine if the
mechanism is capable of performing the desired translation. If the
translation cannot be performed, an invalid translation is reported
to the user at block 106. The user is then permitted to retry or
end the process as shown at blocks 108, 102 and block 110. If the
translation mechanism determines the language transformation is
valid at block 104, control is transferred to block 112 where the
user may request notification of information loss. If notification
is selected, the user is allowed to enter information loss criteria
at block 114. Information losses may be entered as general or
detailed criteria. A general criteria may stipulate that if a
document is translated from one language to another, then consider
the document/message as having information loss. On the other hand,
detailed criteria could indicate a particular word has been defined
as losing information when translated to a destination language.
Thereafter, information loss notification will occur when a
message/document is translated to the destination language. For
example, the originator of the Russian message shown in FIG. 1,
could stipulate that translation of the equivalent English word
"Good" would result in information loss. Alternatively, the Russian
author could stipulate that the Russian message should not be
translated into English. Returning to FIG. 4, the originator is
allowed to enter the information loss criteria at block 114 and the
loss criteria is checked for validity at block 116. If the loss
criteria is valid, an information loss table is built at block 118
and this information is reported to the originator of the note at
block 124. The translation mechanism will then attach a
distribution component to the original note at block 126 and the
process will stop as indicated at block 128. The distribution
component will contain information loss table criteria preferably
stored in a language conversion criteria (LCC) object that may then
be attached to the original message in a manner well known to those
skilled in the art and as described in the Document Interchange
Architecture (DIA) produced by the IBM Corporation. DIA is a
protocol that permits documents to be composed of multiple objects
including a document history log object, document relation object,
document model object as well as the proposed LCC object. Returning
to block 112, if the user elects not to be informed of any
information losses, the translation mechanism attaches the
distribution component at block 126 without a LCC object and the
process ends at block 128. The distribution component contains
other document attributes as described in the DIA produced by the
IBM Corporation.
Turning now to FIG. 5, a flow diagram is shown describing the
operation of the invention when a message is received at a
recipient's workstation. The process begins at block 140 and
proceeds to block 142 where the distribution component of the
received note is checked for the presence of an information loss
component as shown at block 144. If a loss component is attached to
the message, the recipient is allowed to select a language
transform in block 146. If the selected language transform is valid
as shown in block 148, the mechanism accesses the information loss
tables and criteria as shown in block 150 and performs the
translation as shown in block 156. The recipient of the message may
request a report of the translation as shown in block 160 which is
sent to the recipient at block 162. The report summaries successes
and failures of the translation process with respect to the
criteria specified by the originator of the distribution. Returning
to block 144, if the translation mechanism determines that an
information loss component is not attached to the message, the user
may request a report as shown at block 158 containing the
information described above. This report is delivered to the user
as shown in block 164. Of course, one skilled in the art recognizes
that the recipient may be provided the option of requesting a
report before or during the reception of the distribution.
Turning now to FIG. 8, a flow diagram is shown describing
additional details of the operation of the invention when the
originator has requested notification of message translation by a
recipient. At block 242, the recipient is given the option of
defining a preferred language translation. For a Russian recipient
receiving an English document, the preferred language translation
would probably be Russian. Selecting the option to specify a
specific language translation allows the user to define a preferred
translation as shown at block 246. This causes the translation
database at the user's machine to be updated with the preferred
translation as shown at block 248 and processing to continue to
block 244. Returning to block 242, if the recipient elects not to
specify a preferred language translation, control is transferred to
block 244 where the user may select activation of the translation
reception procedure to receive a transmitted message. Selection of
the translation reception procedure results in the initialization
and the entry of the receiving workstation into a wait state for
receiving the distribution/message as shown in blocks 250 and 252.
When the distribution/document is received, the procedure reads the
language type of the document as shown in block 254. At block 256,
the user views the document and determines if the document needs
translation. The document is translated at block 258 when the user
selects the translate option. The translation mechanism determines
at block 260 if information loss has occurred as a result of the
translation. In addition, at block 262, the translation procedure
checks to see if the message originator has requested to be
notified of message translations. If the originator of the note has
requested notification, the procedure builds the notification
request using the address supplied by the originator as shown in
block 264. Additional checking is then initiated to determine if
the;originator requested a copy of the translation as shown at
block 266. At block 270, the procedure attaches a copy of the
translated document to the notification and transmits it to the
originator as shown in blocks 270 and 268. Using the described
steps, the procedure easily handles the translation of messages and
returns the status of the translation process to the originators of
messages.
With reference now to FIGS. 6 and 7, there is shown a flowchart in
greater detail for creating the criteria for information losses due
to audio message translation. To illustrate the operation of the
invention where a message is created or received at a user's
workstation, the procedure starts at block 170 of FIG. 6. The user
through GUI panels similar to those described above, requests a
view of the word loss table as indicated at block 172. If a message
does not have a word loss table attached to it, the user is allowed
to request a display panel to specify criteria for a loss table as
shown in block 174. If the message has a word loss table attached,
the user selects a language to view the word loss table as shown in
block 202 of FIG. 7. This causes the procedure to access a word
loss table database as shown at block 204. The user is given the
option at block 216 of viewing the entire word loss table or only
selected portions. If the entire word loss table is specified, it
is presented as shown in block 226. If not, the user at block 218
is given the option of viewing only the words that have experienced
losses during translation or terminating the viewing process. If
the user elects to terminate the view process, the procedure ends
as shown in block 184 of FIG. 6. Else, the user selects a document
as shown in FIG. 7 at block 220, and the words that have
translation loss information will be sought and detected in the
document. At block 222, the procedure starts at the beginning of
the document/message and proceeds to check all words experiencing
losses due to translation. The procedure loops as indicated at
blocks 230, 224, and 232 to completely identify and highlight all
words within the messages. The words are then presented to the user
as indicated at block 226.
Returning to FIG. 6, the originator of a message may append and
send criteria for translation losses along with the audio message.
At block 174, a request to send loss criteria option is presented.
The user electing not to send criteria for loss along with the
message is alternatively given the option of requesting
notification of message translation as indicated at block 176. If
the user requests notification of the later translation of a
message, then the user is allowed to specify the address to send
the notification as indicated at block 206 in FIG. 7. At block 208,
the user specifies the language translations that will generate a
notification message and also indicates whether a copy of the
translation should also be sent as shown at block 210. At block
212, a user is allowed to associate the notification request as an
attribute to the audio message to be transmitted with the audio
message. This attribute will reside in an associated distribution
object. With reference again to FIG. 6 and in particular block 174,
if the user elects to specify criteria for loss, then at block 188
an option is given to select the language for translation. This
means that the user may select, for example, to change an audio
message in English to Russian. At block 190, the user selects the
language to define the criteria loss information. The criteria loss
information is then associated with the document as an attribute as
shown in block 192 and the process ends. Of course, one skilled in
the art would recognize that the attribute resides in an associated
distribution object. If the user elects not to select a language
for defining the criteria loss information, the user may
alternatively select words from the language considered to have
losses as shown in block 186 and attach this information to the
audio message as an attribute as indicated at block 192.
Returning again to block 176, if the user elects not to request
notification of the later translation of the audio message, an
option is given the user to define a system word loss table in
block 178. The procedure ends at block 184 if the user elects not
to define a system word loss table. On the other hand, if the user
selects definition of a system word loss table, access is checked
at block 180 and the user specifies the word translations for
languages as shown at block 194. The user specifies loss of
information for words in block 196 which is stored in a database at
block 198.
Turning now to FIG. 9, there is depicted a pictorial representation
of data processing system 8 which may be utilized to implement the
method of the present invention. As may be seen, data processing
system 8 may include a plurality of networks, such as Local Area
Networks (LAN) 10 and 32, each of which preferably includes a
plurality of individual computers 12 and 30, respectively. Of
course, those skilled in the art will appreciate that a plurality
of Interactive Work Stations (IWS) coupled to a host processor may
be utilized for each such network.
As is common 2in such data processing systems, each individual
computer may be coupled to a storage device 14 and/or a
printer/output device 16. One or more such storage devices 14 may
be utilized, in accordance with the method of the present
invention, to store applications or resource objects which may be
periodically accessed by any user within data processing system 8.
In a manner well known in the prior art, each such application or
resource object stored within a storage device 14 is associated
with a Resource Manager, which is responsible for maintaining and
updating all resource objects associated therewith.
Still referring to FIG. 9, it may be seen that data processing
network 8 may also include multiple main frame computers, such as
main frame computer 18, which may be preferably coupled to Local
Area Network (LAN) 10 by means of communications link 22. Main
frame computer 18 may also be coupled to a storage device 20 which
may serve as remote storage for Local Area Network 10. Similarly,
Local Area Network (LAN) 10 may be coupled via communications link
24 through a subsystem control unit/communications controller 26
and communications line 34 to a gateway server 28. Gateway server
28 is preferably an individual computer or Interactive Work
Stations (IWS) which serves to link Local Area Network (LAN) 32 to
Local Area Network (LAN) 10.
As discussed above with respect to Local Area Network (LAN) 32 and
Local Area Network (LAN) 10, resource objects may be stored within
storage device 20 and controlled by main frame computer 18, as
resource manager for the resource objects thus stored. Of course,
those skilled in the art will appreciate that main frame computer
18 may be located a great geographic distance from Local Area
Network (LAN) 10 and similarly Local Area Network (LAN) 10 may be
located a substantial distance from Local Area Network (LAN) 32.
That is, Local Area Network (LAN) 32 may be located in California
while Local Area Network (LAN) 10 may be located within Texas and
main frame computer 18 may be located in New York. Those skilled in
the art will recognize that a plurality of data processing systems
8 may be coupled together to provide wide area communication to
users of different nationalities.
In summary, the invention provides a method and apparatus for
transmitting messages and word translation losses incurred when
messages are translated and reporting it to users within a network.
The originator of the message is allowed to access word loss
information tables through a graphical user interface to determine
the effects of a particular language translation. The originator of
the messages is then allowed to enter general and detailed criteria
for future translation of the message in a language conversion
criteria object. The language conversion criteria may be
subsequently attached to the original message and transmitted to
another user within a network. Upon receiving a message from
another user which needs translation, the recipient of the message
is allowed to access the language conversion criteria object and
translate the message. The invention then provides for transmittal
of a notification of translation back to the originator. In
addition, a copy of the translated message viewed by the recipient
may be transmitted to the originator for verification purposes.
While the invention has been particularly shown and described with
reference to preferred embodiments thereof, it will be understood
by those skilled in the art that various changes in form and
details may be made therein without departing from the spirit and
scope of the invention.
* * * * *